Straight surface lines

Really thought about posting this on the Geology section, but refrained from doing it since it's not going to be in any way an "experts" discussion (at least from my side).

I was browsing around in Google Mars and one thing I could notice is the heavy presence of straight lines running on the surface of the planet.
What caused them, from a geological pov?

Here's an example of three straight parallel lines. You can follow them for several miles, for example to the bottom-left where they separate a little and go on:
http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-50.412018&lon=-128.023681&zoom=7

My first post here, but I've been reading quite a bit of what was posted over the years. Not a native so pardon any mistakes and non-fluency in what I write.

Also, my guess at the lines is that they were brought about by strong quakes, perhaps impact-induced ones.

Galafon; Thanks for bringing this to my notice. My notice, as I'm not sure if any of the other regulars have made the same observation before. I haven't got a clue what the origin of those parallel and almost perfectly straight lines could be. Perhaps we should send out a call to Dana Johnson or Kye Goodin. They might know.

Actually what firstly puzzled me was this other "fissure":
http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-13.587260&lon=-109.044799&zoom=7

Which appears to be starting just right off that ridge (whose elevation peaks at 6 to 9 km according to the legend, which is astounding).
I don't want to make science fiction, but to my (untrained) eye it looks just like it would if some kind of "blow" occurred on that mountain's side and ejected material in a straight line outwardly, for several (thousands of?) miles. The line widens and its "bed" gets thinner as it goes on (provided what we see after that horn-like depression is the same line), to only eventually confuse itself with another group of linear surface features (whose nature I'd be at a loss to explain, equally).

But then again, why would a fissure be interrupting at some point, only to "recover" some miles further with a different structure?
Was it a liquid that caused it? I cannot figure out the depth of these holes. The first part of the line seems deep though.

Perhaps I'm seeing exceptionality where there really isn't one. Excuse me if that's the case. I just looked at (possibly trivial) geological features with an inquisitive eye.
It may be if I were glancing comparable maps of the Earth I'd be equally puzzled by our planet's geology (hence my ignorance).

Read the electric universe by Talbott. There may be some insights there.

Winston

galafon

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Posted: October 15, 2013 4:36 PM

Yep thanks for the suggestion. I had already noted down that title.

newboy

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Posted: October 16, 2013 5:50 AM

To a humble geologist (the lines are in rock) they appear to be related to the volcanic events around Olympia Mons to the NE of the googled site. You can see much denser straight lines closer to the peak, associated with lavas. Therefore they are fractures caused by the stress of the intrusion of magma into the underlying rocks.

John Henry Dough

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Posted: October 16, 2013 10:21 AM

I would suggest a high velocity meteor,coming
in just above the horizon,barley touching Mars
perhaps continuing on past.Or perhaps caught in Mars orbit,(one of the two moons?),what an
awesome interesting place Mars is.

I notice that we are getting some new very nice
HiRise?(i haven't investigated this yet)pictures
from Mars,,especially the Olympic Mons,ones.

Greetings to all my fellow Marsaholics.

John Henry Dough

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Posted: October 16, 2013 10:27 AM

hmmmmmm,,,Marsaholics?,,,,I suppose,considering
the scarcity of posts on both the forums,,that
we might as well go ahead and officially call ourselves true Martians,,thoughts?,,anyone?

John

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Posted: October 26, 2013 3:03 AM

LWS...the electric universe by Talbott. Brother in law tried to get me to subscribe to that theory. Show me a fulgurite in Mars, SHOW ME.